Three cricket teams gain outright wins

Press, 18 October 1976, Page 19

Three cricket teams gain outright wins

Lancaster Park and’ Sydenham, with 21|l points each, have nosed j ahead of St Albans (21) ■ and opened up a useful lead on the rest of thei field after the first round i of the Christchurchi senior inter-club cricket, competition. All three sides gained out-| right victories when the matches concluded on Satur-| day, the only stalemate! occuring in the game be-l, tween Bumside-West Uni-L versity and High School Old Boys. Although the margins ini eaeh case were decisive, the inevitable St Albans winii over East Christchurch-Shir-i ley was delayed until the* late afternoon at Hagley Oval. The long, slow process which East-Shirley went, through to deny St Albans a half-day pass might be ’

recommended as a cure for insomnia, but it was impossible to ignore the courage involved in the struggle against mountainous odds. ■ East-Shirley could have gone to lunch a loser by an innings and with a serious psychological set-back for the season; as it was, it was still capturing St Albans second-innings wickets a few moments before the match ended shortly after 5.30 p.m. Old Collegians must seek to improve its batting, after collapsing again against Lancaster Park. Scores of 76 and 75 would have been respectable at Russley; they were well over par for the Elmwood Park course, and Lancaster Park had an innings and 61 runs in hand. Similarly, Sydenham humbled Riccarton at Sydneham Park. The Riccarton batting fell flat, David Stead providing just over half of the 75 runs off the bat. It was a formality for Sydenham to win by nine wickets

■ The one-sided sequence, was not adhered to at Ham, i where Burnside-West and Old Boys declared three ini nings, and then a draw was ,|the result. Burnside-West was marginally in the better > position at stumps, needing .1 three dismissals with 56 ; I runs in reserve. ;i Results:— " Lancaster Park 212/* dec., J beat Old Collegians 76 and 75, ■ by an innings and 61 runs. Sydenham 155/5 dec. and :! 54/1, beat Rlccarton 125 and 80, by nine wickets. St Albans 170/» dec. and 47/3, beat East-Shirley 69 and 155, by seven wickets. Burnside-West 201/8 dec. and 158/7 dec., drew with Old Boys ! 151/6 dec. and 152/7. Points. —

Bowlers were generally dominant on the slow pitches on Saturday, but in most cases the wickets were well distributed.

Bruce Irving (Lancaster Park) had the best analysis, 4/16 (and 6/34 for the game). The other leading wicket-takers had also done well on the first day, and their match figures are given in parenthesis—Stephen Boock (St Albans). 4/51 (9/88), lan Wilson (Sydenham). 4/26 (8/77), Joe Harrison (St Albans), 4/51 (6/56), and Kevin Williams (Burnside-West), 4/47 (6/73). The most prolific individual scoring was at Bam, by Cran Bull (Old Boys), 70, John Mitchell (Burnside-West), 67. which gave Shim a match aggregate of 100, and Murray Mbwat (Old Boys), who took his overnight score of I seven to 51 not out. But even though the EastShirley captain, Graeme Pulley, accumulated only 23 runs, he earned much credit for his 175m1n of defiance against St Albans. DECISIVE WIN Lancaster Park might be, according to the description of its captain, Maurice Ryan, "a modest little side,” but it laid a very useful foundation for a championship challenge when it finished off Old Collegians before tea at Elmwood Park. Ryan said that a team could tend to become complacent in the light of such a decisive result. He cautioned that all members of his squad would need to realise their potential in the harder matches ahead. Certainly, the Lancaster Park bowlers have all made a confident start to the season. And, not surprisingly, the veteran spinner, Bruce Irving, was at their forefront with four dismissals—all bowled—on Saturday to add to his two cheap wickets the'previous week-end. Irving, mean In his concession of runs and never wavering from an admirable line and length, removed John Phillips , when Phillips was attempting to redress the situation in partnership with Murray Polson. Irving returned after lunch to ensure an early end to the game. The medium-pacers, Wayne Wilson and Trevor Luke, also relished the rustiness of the opposing batsmen. Luke finished i off Old Collegians’, first innings I with his opening ball of the I morning, and Wilson again made quick profit when the follow-on was enforced.

Excellent support for Irving was given by the left-arm spinner. Andrew Nuttall. He flighted the ball intelligently and cut short the determined resistance of Polson, who was sixth

out after lifting a cover drive to Tony Collins. Bevan Congdon punched holes in the Old Collegians middle order, and Ryan’s two stumpings were smoothly accomplished. DELAYED RESULT When East-Shirley lost its fifth second-innings wicket with only half of the 110-run deficit written off, an early close to the match at Hagley Oval seemed a formality for St Albans. But the stubborn attitude shown by John Grocott and Keith Hartshorne In the first hour rubbed off onto their teammates, and the East-Shirley captain, Graeme Pulley, held his rivals at bay for nearly three hours.

Pulley’s dedication was complemented by some forceful hitting by Gary Hooper and the lastwicket pair, John Langley and Bob Impey, and St Albans was eventually left needing 46 runs for victory. Over all, progress was very slow. Hartshorne waited 47mln to open his account, Pulley was 30min getting off the mark. At one stage the St Albans spinners, Joe Harrison and Stephen Boock, conceded only one run in 10 overs, and the whole innings took 82 overs and almost five hours.

However, the East-Shirley batsmen should benefit from their long sells at the pitch, and their fighting spirit was to be admired. The slow pitch, which became easier as the day progressed, assisted neither team to any extent, although Boock still managed a reasonable amount of turn.

Boock and Harrison carried the attack to East-Shirley, and were somewhat let down by indiffer-

tent catching. They returned similar figures, varying their flight and line to chip away at the stem East-Shirley defence. The St Albans second innings began with Les Smith lifting the first delivery to the mid-off boundary, and he continued to bat attractively until well caught by Adrian Jackson on the leg side. Smith and the other St Albans batsmen had to contend with some lively bowling by Impey, Hooper and Pulley. EASY VICTORY Sydenham was seldom under any pressure in beating .Riccarton shortly after tea. It batted on to a small lead, dismissed Riccarton cheaply, and was untroubled in scoring the necessary runs.

Forty runs were added to the overnight total, in even time. Keith Thomson batted soundly withous being entirely convincing, and David Stead bowled accurately. Riccarton lost a wicket In the first over of its second innings and the last three with the total at 80.

Only David Stead showed any positive inclinations. He hit the ball strongly through the leg side, asd If these shots were mainly in the air it was a necessary risk, the grass still being quite long. Peter Stubbings played on <to his stumps for the second time in the match and Graham Barrett fell to a very good catch by John Larter at leg slip. The three Sydenham mediumpaced bowlers shared the spoils, but it was Denis Smolensk! who captured the vital wickets of Stead and Barrett. He bowled his left-armers quite briskly and gained considerable movement in the aiv and occasionally off the

pitch. Both Bin Aldridge and ran Wilson relished the opportunity to demolish a batting tail of only modest talent. Sydenham scored the winning runs in even time, with Bill Thomson again quickly into his stride. NO OUTRIGHT decision Although both sides opened up the match by declarations, neither Burnside-West University nor High School Old Boys were sufficiently stiong to force an outright win. Forceful batting from Murray Mowat and John Christensen denied Burnside the opportunity to drive home the previous week’s advantage, and the score was taken from 70 to 151 with the loss of only one further wicket. The partnership between Mowat and Christensen was worth 71 in 121mln, and enabled a declaration to be made at 12.20 p.m. The Burnside second innings opened badly when Dayle Hadlee bowled Kevin Williams in his first over, but then the aggressive John Mitchell — with solid support from Matthew Toynbee — defied the bowling. Wickets fell steadily, but Old Boys were unable to break through ■ the innings and Burnside declared, leaving Old Boys 140 minutes to score 209 rims.

A third wicket partnership of 80, in an hour, from Cran Bull and John Calder gave Old Boys a fighting chance. However, accurate mediumpaced bowling by Williams never allowed the batsmen to achieve complete domination. Bull’s attractive innings came to an end in the ninth of the last 15 overs and Old Boys played out the final overs defensively.

Win Bt Bl Pts Lane. Pk 12 5 44 214 Sydenham 12 5 44 214 St Albans 12 4 5 21 Riccarton 0 21 24 6 Old Boys 0 3 14 44 East-Shirley 0 0 4 4 Burnside-West 0 3 04 34 Old Collegians 0 0 34 34